OB hush thy mouth, you have committed the mortal sin by naming "The Scottish Play" you will now have the Scottish Curse fall upon you
Be quick young man and off for a round of cleansing rituals
The Roman Polanski film maybe?
It was jolly good anyway.
There is a grand chamber in Holyrood with paintings of every Scottish monarch and he is there. From the sound of it he was not particularly nasty by the standards of the time.
John
That only applies if you are physically within a theatre.
No, No.
The Scottish Play and the The Bard's Play are euphemisms for William Shakespeare's Macbeth. The first is a reference to the play's Scottish setting, the second a reference to Shakespeare's popular nickname. According to a theatrical superstition, called the Scottish curse, speaking the name Macbeth outside a theatre will cause disaster. A variation of the superstition forbids direct quotation of the play (except during rehearsals) while inside a theater.
I've just sneezed twice - I think I am coming down with the plague, or something worse!
Check out the 1948 Orson Welles production. Was it 100% "historically accurate"? No, but Welles did not put Macbeth in Shakespeare's time (or the Middle Ages) in terms of material culture. His version has a distinctly "dark ages" feel to it, plus Welles actually has his cast speak with a Scottish brogue.
And I must respectfully disagree with Chas; the superstition surrounding the name of the "Scottish play" does only apply when one is inside a theatre -- this comes straight from my father, who was a Shakespearean actor in a local troupe for a number of years. My father invoked St. Genesius, the patron saint of actors*, in such situations, but there is always:
Originally Posted by Downunder Kilt
as he lived in the 11th century.
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